For years my two boys and I have enjoyed reading together. We have recently ventured into the realm of Sherlock Holmes and the past few nights into The Hound of The Baskervilles.

And wouldn't you know it, there, in Chapter 3, we stumble across a rather cogent summation of the practice followed by almost every idea person in the pursuit of ideas. In the voice of Dr. Watson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle writes, "...the seclusion and solitude were very necessary for my friend [Holmes] in those hours of intense mental concentration during which he..."

"weighed every particle of evidence,"

"constructed alternative theories,"

"balanced one against the other,"

"and made up his mind as to which points were essential and which immaterial."

Indeed, an idea is brewing!

I also love this keen insight from Conan Doyle given voice by his Sherlock Holmes:

"The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes."

 Ideas people are, by nature, detectives!